Emerging from the Great Lockdown in Asia and Europe by Changyong Rhee and Poul M. Thomsen published by IMFBlog (5/2020).
“Several countries in Asia and Europe, where the COVID-19 outbreak appears to have peaked, are gradually reopening their economies. Without a vaccine or effective treatment, policymakers will be balancing the benefits of resuming economic activity against the potential cost of another increase in infection rates. They face difficult choices, in part, because the costs of erring in either direction could be very large.
Given this, authorities are adopting a gradual and sequenced approach to reopening, along with the adoption of further prevention and containment measures. While some Asian countries have already moved down this path with some success, risks remain—and the risks for Europe may be even greater. How do unlocking strategies compare across Asia and Europe?
The COVID-19 pandemic hit Asia first. It quickly spread from China to others in the region and has yet to retreat from all those countries. To date, over 250,000 people in South and East Asia have been infected, and 9,700 have died, with China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea accounting for over 85 percent of all infections.
Following the lockdown in China in late January, and a proactive containment effort of testing, tracking, and isolating in Korea, these two countries saw new infections peak in February, just when the pandemic began to hit Europe hard. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Europe has now reached 1.8 million, representing almost half the world’s total. The reported death toll stands close to 160,000, out of more than 280,000 worldwide…”
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